Protective equipment typically serves to protect body parts from injury by resisting or at least cushioning mechanical impacts. For example, in addition to improving the grip on the inner side of the hand, sports gloves also protects the hands from substantial mechanical loads.
Conventionally, such sports gloves have been formed from a number of parts that are individually sewn together. By using small individual components that are individually stitched together, the glove's flexibility is improved, but the assembly time and labor required to manufacture such gloves is extensive. For example, in a typical lacrosse glove, over thirty individual pieces are assembled and sewn together, which means over sixty pieces must be sewn together to create one pair. Furthermore, the conventional materials used to form such gloves tend to result in gloves are not substantially light-weight.
Thus, in certain embodiments, it may be desirable to find a way to minimize the number of individual pieces used to assemble sports gloves while maintaining or improving flexibility, as well as reducing labor and material costs and improving the ease of manufacturing and customization. Furthermore, it may be desirable to reduce the weight of the sports gloves through the use of lighter materials.